What It Means to Live Like Jesus

I spent 2020 assessing my faith. Here are some of the questions I asked myself:

How many of my beliefs are actually based on what’s in the Bible?
How much of my faith is rooted in my own concept of Christianity?
How much is born out of my culture or my life experiences?

It was a brutal year, but now, when it comes to my faith, I feel freer and closer to God than I have felt in a long time. In fact, this might be the closest I’ve ever felt to God. He is shedding me, removing false beliefs from me, and I am so incredibly grateful for that!

The other day, as I was praying, I told God that I wanted to live more like Jesus. I’ve prayed this many times over the years, but it gave me pause this time.

In the past, when I’ve prayed that prayer, I’m not sure I thought about what Jesus’s life was actually like. Sure, I know all about his loving, gracious, and kind character, but those traits led him into some uncomfortable situations. I had to pause and count the cost of the prayer I was praying.

Jesus was homeless.

Jesus was misunderstood.

Jesus was hated.

Jesus was mocked.

Jesus was betrayed.

Jesus was unjustly killed.

As I thought through this list, I started to weep. Jesus was perfect, righteous, loving, and kind. He did nothing wrong, and yet he was not honored as he should’ve been. Jesus was lied about and plotted against. The good he did was called evil. He was constantly under threat from others. Jesus’s life wasn’t easy or comfortable. Instead, his life was dangerous and painful.

When I compare my life with Jesus’s, I realize just how much I value my own desires and comfort. I can so easily make my life about me and what I want instead of what he wants. If I do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly as Jesus did, I will be misunderstood and hated by some. If I allow the Holy Spirit to produce the fruit of love, joy, and peace in my life, I will be mocked and betrayed.

The way of Jesus is beautiful and life-giving, but it also looks different from how I was taught I should live.

Luke 11 contains one of the more uncomfortable sermons Jesus ever preached. I don’t know about you, but I really enjoy it when Jesus is being comforting and healing. Reading the passages where he tells his followers to take up their crosses is much less fun. But I can’t help but wonder how my life would change if I took passages like this one more seriously. How might the world change if God’s people took him at his Word?

I encourage you to read through these verses slowly. Count the cost. Examine your own heart and mind. Engage in the process of repentance as God leads.

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 11:25-33 ESV)

Following Christ is costly. It’s uncomfortable. It causes us to look at everything in our lives through the lens of the kingdom of God. It requires a dying to self and a renunciation of our former way of doing life. Jesus made it clear that discipleship wasn’t something we should leap into without thinking—we need to consider the cost of following him. Being a disciple requires a lot, but I’m finding that it’s worth the pain, discomfort, and dying to self that it requires.

Jesus went first and showed us how to live; now he’s asking us if we’re willing to go all-in for the One who gave his all for us.

Sarah J Callen is an entrepreneur and published author currently living in Dallas, Texas. Her dreams include founding businesses, giving strategically, and sharing art with the world. Connect with her on her website SarahJCallen.com or on social media @sarahjcallen.